The call for the Media magazine’s Asia Pacific PR Awards, the PR Student of the Year award has been announced. The award is one of the most prestigious awards in Asia Pacific among the PR students community.

The PR student award category was first announced in 2006 in conjunction with Weber Shandwick. The winner of the award gets USD 6,000 in prize money, a paid for trip to Hong Kong on Nov 20, 2008 for the awards ceremony, and a paid internship at a Weber Shandwick office nearest to the student.

Any student enrolled as an undergraduate student at an institute or university in the Asia Pacific region, irrespective of whether he/she is majoring media or maths, communications or chemistry, can enter the contest. To participate, students needs to write a PR campaign for MasterCard and showcase his/her creative and real life PR skills in drafting the same. The entry kit can be downloaded from here. The detailed brief for developing the campaign is provided in the entry kit, but in a nutshell, it is like this.

In the lead up to the holiday season (December – February), when consumer spending is at its highest, MasterCard is keen to launch a financial management awareness campaign that specifically targets women in Asia Pacific. Based on the strategies outlined in the existing website, MasterCard wants to launch a holistic program that helps women manage their finances.

The entry should be on these lines:

Your proposal should be no more than four typed pages, 10pt font, and should include the following six components:
1. Objectives – Outline clear, measurable objectives to ensure success of your campaign
2. Audience – Specifically identify the people or groups you want to target
3. Strategy – Describe the overall strategy to achieve your objectives
4. Research and planning – Explain how and what type of research would be relevant
to shaping the planning process
5. Execution and tactics – Explain your program in detail. Break it down into major
components
6. Evaluation/Measurement of success – How will you evaluate the success of your
campaign?

Standard campaign elements that you must produce (in addition to the proposal) include: one written press release; a sample pitch letter to a particular media outlet; and a list of targeted media contacts. No budgets have been allocated as yet, but budgets will be commensurate with the program put forth. You must demonstrate strategic thinking, creativity and flawless execution in your proposal.

The entry deadline is September 12, 2008.